# trade

Pronunciation: say "TRAYD" /tɹeɪd/

## Noun

1. The activity of buying and selling goods and services in a market.
   - Simple: The buying and selling of goods and services between people or countries.
   - _Global trade slowed sharply during the economic downturn._
   - _Coastal cities have long depended on trade for their prosperity._
4. A skilled job, especially one involving manual or craft work, learned through training and practice.
   - Simple: A job that needs special skill with your hands, such as plumbing or carpentry.
   - _She mastered the trade of cabinetmaking over many years._
   - _Many young people now enter the building trades._
5. A single act of buying, selling, or exchanging something, such as shares, goods, or sports players.
   - Simple: One deal in which something is bought, sold, or swapped.
   - _The broker completed several trades before lunch._
   - _His final trade of the day earned a small profit._
6. The people and businesses involved in a particular industry or kind of skilled work.
   - Simple: All the people and companies that work in one kind of business.
   - _The publishing trade has changed dramatically with digital media._
   - _Suppliers across the trade reported rising costs this year._
9. Publications written for people who work in a particular industry or group of industries, usually called the trades.
   - Simple: Magazines or newspapers made for people who work in one industry, usually called the trades.
   - _The studio's budget troubles were reported in the trades weeks before any newspaper picked up the story._
   - _Before moving to a national paper, he spent ten years editing a trade that covers the trucking industry._
10. A steady wind blowing from the east toward the equator, occurring on both sides of it.
   - Simple: A steady wind that blows toward the equator from the east.
   - _The trade winds carried the fleet across the ocean in record time._
   - _Mariners learned to navigate using the trades and the seasonal currents._
11. The custom or business that customers bring to a commercial establishment. *(UK)*
   - Simple: The amount of business that customers bring to a shop.
   - _The pub built up a steady trade among local workers._
   - _The new bypass took much of the village shop's trade away._
13. A masculine man available for casual sex with other men, often for payment. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A masculine man who is available for casual sex with other men, sometimes for money.
   - _He went down to the harbor looking for trade._
   - _The regulars knew the young sailor was trade, though he swore he only dated women._

## Verb

2. To exchange something with someone, giving one thing and receiving another in return.
   - Simple: To give something to someone and get something else back from them.
   - _The players traded jerseys after the match._
   - _Collectors often trade duplicates to complete their sets._
3. To buy and sell goods or services, or to do business, especially as a living.
   - Simple: To buy and sell things, or to run a business.
   - _Local merchants trade in rare metals and minerals._
   - _Small ships once traded along the entire coastline._
7. To be bought or sold at a particular price or under particular conditions.
   - Simple: To be bought and sold at a certain price in a market.
   - _Tech stocks trade at high valuations right now._
   - _Gold traded near record highs throughout the year._
8. With on or upon, to use or exploit something, such as a name, reputation, or image, to gain an advantage or benefit.
   - Simple: With on, to use something you have, like a famous name or good reputation, to get an advantage.
   - _Some politicians trade on their war records to win votes._
   - _The company traded on its founder's reputation to attract investors._
12. To have dealings, or to be concerned or associated with another party.
   - Simple: To do business or have dealings with someone.
   - _After the scandal, few firms in town were willing to trade with him._
   - _The village elders traded only with families they had known for generations._

## Noun

14. A course of action, custom, practice, or occupation; a settled way of conducting one's affairs. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A custom, habit, or usual way of doing things, or a job.
15. The tools or instruments used in carrying out a particular occupation. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The tools or equipment used in a job.
16. A track, trail, path, or passage along which one travels. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A path, track, or way that people travel along.

## Other meanings

- (noun) Short for trade paperback: a paperback in a larger, sturdier format, especially one collecting previously published comic issues.
- (adjective) Produced for sale in the ordinary bulk retail trade and therefore of only the most basic quality.
- (noun) Waste material or refuse left over from a mine.

## Origin

'Trade' entered English from Middle English 'trade' ("path, course of conduct"), brought in by Hanseatic merchants, from Middle Low German 'trade' ("track, course") and Old Saxon 'trada' ("track"). It ultimately derives from Proto-Germanic *tradō ("track, way") and is cognate with Old English 'tredan' ("to tread"), from the Proto-Indo-European root *dreh₂- ("to tread, walk, step").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/trade (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).